O Golovinski court, in Moscow, will announce the decision at noon on Tuesday, the judge, Yelena Astakhova, said today, cited by the Russian news agency TASS.
“They accuse us of discrediting [o exército], without explaining what it is about or how it differs from legitimate criticism. They accuse us of intentionally spreading false information without bothering to prove its falsity,” Orlov said in his last statement before the verdict.
Orlov recalled that he is being tried for an article in which he described the current political regime as “totalitarian and fascist”, something that, given what has happened in recent months, including the death in prison of opponent Alexei Navalny, he said was not ” not at all exaggerated.”
“The State in our country once again controls not only social, political and economic life, but also aspires to total control of culture, scientific thought and even invades private life”, he stated, adding that it has become an absolute State.
More than a dozen European diplomats, including representatives from the Spanish and European Union embassy in the Russian capital, were present at the hearing, according to Memorial in a message published on the Telegram network.
During the trial, Orlov refused to acknowledge his guilt and renounced the presence of witnesses in his defense, arguing that this could pose a risk to them, as he was classified as a ‘foreign agent’, a status that entails heavy administrative restrictions. .
Orlov was fined, on October 11, 150 thousand rubles (1,500 euros) for the same case, but the Public Prosecutor’s Office appealed the decision, accusing him of “nurturing ideological and political hatred” against Russia, so the Urban Court Moscow ordered a repeat trial.
The prosecutor assumed, however, as mitigating factors, among other aspects, the defendant’s age – 70 years old – and his brilliant career as an activist over the last 30 years.
The courts opened the criminal case against Orlov in March for the article entitled “They wanted fascism, they already have it”, published in the French press and, in November 2022, on the social network Facebook.
“The bloody war declared by the regime of [do Presidente russo, Vladimir] Putin in Ukraine does not just mean the mass murder of people, but also the destruction of the infrastructure, economy and cultural assets of that extraordinary country,” the article said.
In December 2021, Russian courts terminated Memorial International and Memorial Human Rights Center for allegedly creating a “false image of the USSR as a terrorist state”.
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Source: https://www.noticiasaominuto.com/mundo/2509536/justica-russa-pede-pena-de-prisao-para-lider-de-organizacao-nobel-da-paz
